Author: Darwin Yuen
Editor: Howard Ha
Publish Date: Friday, June 14th, 2002
Originally Published on Neoseeker (http://www.neoseeker.com)
Article Link: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Games/Reviews/morrowind/
Copyright Neo Era Media, Inc. - please do not redistribute or use for commercial purposes.
Introduction
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Most would agree that the RPG genre is going through another one of its periodic revivals at this point in time. Along with Dungeon Siege and the upcoming Neverwinter Nights, one of the most talked about RPGs coming out this year is definitely Bethesda Softworks’ Morrowind, the third game in the Elder Scrolls RPG series. Several years in the making after its first two successful predecessors (Arena and Daggerfall), Morrowind has had its fair share of hype and expectations. Morrowind certainly deserves a closer look by default, since it is essentially one of the few RPGs, if not the only RPG out these days that offers completely open-ended gameplay (that isn’t a MMORPG). Keep in mind, however, that due to the fact that the game is just so huge, it’s virtually impossible to talk about everything in the game. Thus, this review will concentrate on what I’ve seen so far in the game from over 60 hours of gameplay.
Game Overview
Morrowind takes place in a distant, eastern province of the Empire. Far away from the Imperial centre, the island of Vvardenfell (also known as the province of Morrowind) is home to the dark elves, everybody’s favourite “evil” race. You’ll find that Dark Elves aren’t the only inhabitants of this remote island. There are the other elven races such as the High Elves and Wood Elves. The usual human types (subcategorized as the Imperials, Nords, Bretons, and Redguards) also maintain large population centres on the island. Rounding out this menagerie of playable races are the Orcs, Argonians (think reptilian people), and Khajit (cat people). Although Dwarves (called Dwemer) used to live in Morrowind, they have long since mysteriously disappeared.
Filled with vast mountain ranges, deserts, and swamps, most of Morrowind remains wild and untamed. Despite efforts to populate it, the countryside still remains a dangerous place to travel through. This is especially true now that a new demonic threat seems to be emerging from Red Mountain. Sealed off from the rest of Morrowind by a huge wall (think of the Great Wall of China), the monsters from Red Mountain appear to be multiplying and attacking settlements with increasing force and frequency. Red Mountain also happens to be the final resting place for Dagoth Ur. Think of him as Morrowind’s answer to Sauron.
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What you have to do with all of this entirely depends on what you make of it, of course. Without giving too much of the main storyline away, you are sent to Morrowind by the Emperor on unspecified business. In fact, you literally don’t have an identity until the game asks you for your character’s stats through an interactive tutorial. After giving your name and selecting your race and your looks, you are asked for your vocation. Depending on the method you choose, you can either answer a series of multiple-choice questions to determine your class, or choose from a pre-generated character “kit”, or make a custom class for your character. I’d have to say that the third choice, that of making your own class, is probably by far the most enjoyable and probably the most in tune with the spirit of the game. This allows you to make a character and play it the way you want to. In addition, here is where you pick your birthsign as well. Your birthsign, if chosen well, will give your character certain unique bonuses that would hopefully complement his/her stats. I ended up creating a Redguard Fighter/Thief that didn’t have the “Sneak” ability (I wasn’t planning on pickpocketing) but on the other hand, was still able to barter well with merchants and pick locks. His birthsign gave him bonuses to agility, and a unique paralysing attack that was a big help in many a battle. Furthermore, his racial bonuses not only gave him significant resistances to disease and poisons, but also included a special ability called Adrenaline Rush that further enhanced his combat abilities. Needless to say, I figured that my Redguard character was ready to venture forth and make a name for himself in Morrowind.
Game Overview (continued)
I didn’t count on the sheer size of the “island.”
Figuring that Morrowind was only a small backwater province compared to the Empire, I was wholly unprepared for the sheer amount of towns and dungeons that dotted the very detailed landscape. The previous two games in the Elder Scrolls were much more wider in scope, but was less detailed. Morrowind, despite trading in the scope for lots of detail, is still nevertheless a huge place to explore. The attention to detail to the scenery of the landscape was simply amazing, and was complemented by the great way everything looked. Depending on your system, the framerates may bog down in many places, as Morrowind is somewhat of a system hog in terms of resources.
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Still, the game does a great job with its day/night cycles and weather effects. The sunrise and sunset graphics were absolutely gorgeous as well as the level of detail given to the night sky. In fact, if you care to look closely, you can make out some of the constellations that the birthsigns refer to. Being caught at night in a sandstorm or a thunderstorm is a scary thing, especially in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, however, the game comes with a handy automap function that gives a great bird’s eye view of not only the local surroundings, but also of your general location in Morrowind. It takes a really long time to traverse the island by foot and thankfully, most large towns and cities are linked to each other either through their Mage Guilds, via sailing ship (think ferries), or via stilt-striders (think giant bugs with hollowed out parts that carry people and cargo around).
Speaking of which, the towns and cities of Morrowind each have their own unique character and design, unlike the prefabricated towns of the previous games in the Elder Scrolls series. In stark contrast to the previous games in the Elder Scrolls series, none of the dungeons are prefabricated either. Morrowind dungeons range from sprawling underground complexes, to tiny caves in the hillside, but almost are always populated by bandits, renegade wizards or other creatures or people to “eliminate.” A few towns were larger than I expected, and each has their own set of quests that you can perform in any order or at any time in the game. One of the cities, Vivec, is actually comprised of several large pyramid shaped buildings that are literally towns unto themselves!
Unfortunately, there are some things to nitpick about like the fact that ALL NPCs in town say exactly the same things. While it is true that most RPGs are sort of like that, at least only guards would say the same things that other guards do, and merchants say the same things that other merchants do. In Morrowind, everyone in the same town talks the same way. That is, the guards, merchants, nobles, and civilians all respond in the same manner to certain topics in the dialogue. You would expect at the very least, the nobles and civilians would have different opinions or ways of saying certain things, but they all use the same text. Another thing that is a little odd is that everybody in town seems to be awake 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rain or shine. The same guards and civilians stand around outside, even when it’s dark and there is a big thunderstorm going on. You’d think every store in town is a 7-Eleven or something. What happened to the day and night cycles? These little problems do take a bit away from the immersion, unfortunately.
Anyway, the freedom to explore anywhere in the game whenever you want to is a refreshing change of pace from the linearity of most RPGs in this genre. The fact that you can take almost any quest at any time means that you’ll never get stuck or be bored with what you’re doing. Don’t like a quest? Just don’t accept it (except for the main quest, of course, but even that is actually somewhat optional). Is the quest is proving to be too difficult? Just leave it alone for a while, take an easier quest from someone else, and come back to finish the job when you’ve levelled up. The end result is that the player never feels stuck in the game. Furthermore, there are usually a couple of different ways to complete a quest.
In addition, this means that some of these solutions may be more applicable to some classes than others. For example, some of the espionage missions are better suited for rogue classes while some missions require a bit more brute strength than usual from the player. The only major problem with the quest system in the game is the fact that the journal system that keeps track of these things is somewhat poorly implemented. It would have been great to see which quests you’ve completed and which quests are still pending/ongoing. Unfortunately, the system in place now has you manually flipping back and forth through your journal, trying to sift through your entire adventure up to that point. This can be a time consuming task because you’ll quickly notice that by the time you’ve played 60+ hours you’d have accumulated somewhere close to eighty pages of notes in your journal. There is a “topic” option that has entries catalogued in alphabetical order however, but it actually isn’t very helpful when you don’t remember what your quest is about.
Gameplay
By now, you’re probably wondering about the combat and skill aspects of the game. The great thing about combat is that it’s pretty simple to get the hang of. Ranged weapons just require aiming and shooting, while melee weapons swing in the direction that you move and press the attack button at the same time. Handy hotkeys make it easy to switch weapons and use essential items in the heat of combat. Right clicking your mouse button will display your character’s vital stats and allow for manipulation and equipping of items and equipment. If, in the middle of combat, you feel you bit off more than you could chew, you can always try to run away. Although Morrowind probably does not have as many weapon and armour types as in other RPGs, there are enough variations to each one that you don’t really notice all too much.
Fortunately, the enchanting system in the game allows you to create your own unique items and weapons, usually with very powerful effects. Unfortunately this can lead to some potential balance issues, especially if you have things that produce continual effects. The game makes it much too easy to make “uber” weapons. In addition, it’s relatively easy to get a very powerful weapon very early into the game and use it, which negates a lot of the challenge. True you have to train your weapon skills to make yourself hit more, but if the game is designed so that anyone can pick up any weapon and use it, there had better be some limiting factor (like Dungeon Siege’s method of handling this problem). Morrowind, unfortunately, has no such limitations. Thankfully, to balance the game and making it less combat dependent, the other skills at your disposal. Even though your character may not have selected a certain skill as a major or a minor skill, it is still possible to advance with it, either simply by practicing the skill anyway, or by purchasing training. I can’t say with enough emphasis that these other non-combat skills are great for rounding out your character, or for someone who feels like playing a non-combat oriented character. These skills actually do give these characters a fighting chance and to advance despite a lack of combat skill. As an incentive, whenever you level up, the stats that the skills that you improved to get that level use will get extra bonuses if you decide to allocate advancement points to them.
Soundtrack
Musically speaking, Morrowind has an excellent soundtrack. If you happen to obtain the Collector’s Edition of the game, you will definitely be in for a treat, thanks to the included soundtrack CD that comes with it. The music that accompanies the game is very well done, and always fits what is going on. The wonder you feel when you explore the vast island of Morrowind is reflected nicely in the scores that get played while you’re out adventuring. The only problem is that there is too little of it! Most of the time you won’t notice but when you’re travelling to distant places that aren’t accessible by the island’s “transportation system,” you’ll be hearing some of these tunes over and over. The sound in the game is of a mixed bag. Most of the time the sound is passable and functional, but sometimes the sound comes from the wrong direction, or sounds muffled like it’s coming from the inside of a box. Also unfortunately, the voice acting in the game ranges from downright disturbing to good, depending on the NPC.
Bugs
Finally, no review about this game would be complete without mention of its bugs, many of which seem to pop up out of nowhere. Although they are actually rather infrequent, when they do appear it tends to be somewhat annoying and usually fatal to your game. For example, when doing transactions with merchants, the game can sometimes boot you back to your desktop. Sometimes the game does that even when you’re not really doing anything. The terrain is sort of buggy as well, as there are certain locations in the world where you can fall through the floor (like in the Mages Guild in Vivec or even sometimes in the countryside). Hopefully Bethesda will have all of these problems resolved by the time the next patch comes out.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’m happy to say that Morrowind appears to be a contender for one of the best RPGs of this year, despite its flaws. Although it appears from my review that there are a lot of problems, the rewards from the exploration and free-form play aspects of this game far outweigh them since most of the time you won’t really notice unless you are consciously “powerlevelling.” The game will grow on you as you play more and more. In my opinion, the chance to explore a world and its story at your own pace, especially after playing so many games where you hand is held for most of the time, is a chance worth taking. I’m hoping that once Bethesda puts out a patch for the game, a lot of these issues will be corrected and the game will be even better. In addition, the game came with an editor; so expect a lot of user made maps, dungeons, and plugins to be available by the time you read this. The game always manages to “wow” you in one way or another, and in the end, although Morrowind doesn’t live up to its hype entirely, it still is an RPG worthy of many hours of play.
Overall Score: 88%Please do not redistribute or use this article in whole, or in part, for commercial purposes.